Famous Quotations / Quotes
Famous Quotes about Liberty
 
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It has been said that the greatest threat to our liberty is from well-meaning, and almost imperceptible encroachments upon our personal freedom.
-- John Louis Coffey		 
The right to privacy is one of the most cherished rights an American citizen has; the right to privacy sets America apart from totalitarian states in which the interests of the state prevail over individual rights. A fundamental part of our concept of ordered liberty is the right to protect one’s home and family against dangerous intrusions subject to the criminal law.
-- John Louis Coffey		 
Prohibition ended in 1933 because the nation’s most influential people, as well as the general public, acknowledged that it had failed. It had increased lawlessness and drinking and aggravated alcohol abuse.
-- Thomas M. Coffey		 
Tolerance implies a respect for another person, not because he is wrong or even because he is right, but because he is human.
-- John Cogley		 
We must realize that our Party's most powerful weapon is racial tension. By propounding into the consciousness of the dark races, that for centuries have been oppressed by the Whites, we can mold them to the program of the Communist Party ... In America, we will aim for subtle victory. While enflaming the Negro minority against the Whites, we will instill in the Whites, a guilt complex for the exploitation of the Negroes. We will aid the Negroes to rise to prominence in every walk of life, in the professions, and in the world of sports and entertainment. With this prestige, the Negroes will be able to intermarry with the Whites, and begin a process which will deliver America to our cause.
-- Israel Cohen (Questionable)		 
Nothing can so alienate a voter from the political system as backing a winning candidate.
-- Mark B. Cohen		 
The business of the philosopher is well done if he succeeds in raising genuine doubt.
-- Morris R. Cohen		 
Small groups or communities may be far more oppressive to the individual than larger ones. Men are in many ways freer in large cities than in small villages.
-- Morris R. Cohen		 
We are going to impose our agenda on the coverage by dealing with the issues and subjects we choose to deal with.
-- Richard M. Cohen		 
Terrorism is escalating to the point that Americans soon may have to choose between civil liberties and more intrusive means of protection.
-- William S. Cohen		 
We have to yet really seriously debate the constitutional issues and whether or not we're willing to give up more freedom in order to have more security.
-- William S. Cohen		 
The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing.
-- Jean Baptiste Colbert		 
I have found some of the best reasons I ever had for remaining at the bottom simply by looking at the men at the top.
-- Frank Moore Colby		 
The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media.
-- William Colby		 
The Latin American drug cartels have stretched their tentacles much deeper into our lives than most people believe. It’s possible they are calling the shots at all levels of government.
-- William Colby		 
But what is Freedom? Rightly understood, A universal licence to be good.
-- Hartley Coleridge		 
Our own heart, and not other men's opinions form our true honor.
-- Samuel Taylor Coleridge		 
I have seen gross intolerance show in support of tolerance.
-- Samuel Taylor Coleridge		 
Every reform, however necessary, will by weak minds be carried to an excess, that itself will need reforming.
-- Samuel Taylor Coleridge		 
A people are free in proportion as they form their own opinions.
-- Samuel Taylor Coleridge		 
If a man is not rising upwards to be an angel, depend upon it, he is sinking downwards to be a devil.
-- Samuel Taylor Coleridge		 
Two hundred ten years ago, the people who drafted our Bill of Rights decided that banning books wasn't the way to handle disagreements. They thought the best thing was more speech. It is a pity that county commissioners in 2002 don't agree.
-- Matt Coles		 
The core issue here is not whether you agree or disagree with the commissioners about gay people. It is whether you think the answer to a disagreement is to yank the words of anyone who disagrees with them out of the library.
-- Matt Coles		 
While the people have property, arms in their hands, and only a spark of noble spirit, the most corrupt Congress must be mad to form any project of tyranny.
-- Rev. Nicholas Collin		 
Perfect freedom is reserved for the man who lives by his own work and in that work does what he wants to do.
-- Robin George Collingwood		 
Perfect Freedom is reserved for the man who lives by his own work, and in that work does what he wants to do.
-- R. G. Collingwood		 
By freethinking I mean the use of the understanding in endeavoring to find out the meaning of any proposition whatsoever, in considering the nature of the evidence for or against, and in judging of it according to the seeming force or weakness of the evidence.
-- Anthony Collins		 
The right of no person to keep and bear arms in defense of his home, person and property, or in aid of the civil power when thereto legally summoned, shall be called in question; but nothing herein contained shall be construed to justify the practice of carrying concealed weapons.
-- Colorado Constitution		 
A governmental purpose to control or prevent certain activities, which may be constitutionally subject to state or municipal regulation under the police power, may not be achieved by means which sweep unnecessarily broadly and thereby invade the area of protected freedoms. Even though the governmental purpose may be legitimate and substantial, that purpose cannot be pursued by means that broadly stifle fundamental personal liberties when the end can be more narrowly achieved.
-- Colorado Supreme Court		 
The 1st Amendment embraces the individual's right to purchase and read whatever books she wishes to, without fear the government will take steps to discover which books she buys, reads, and intends to read.
-- Colorado Supreme Court		 
[The state] cannot disarm any class of persons or deprive them of the right guaranteed under section 13, article 2 of the Constitution, to bear arms in defense of home, person, and property. The guaranty thus extended is meaningless if any person is denied the right to possess arms for such protection....
-- Colorado Supreme Court		 
To know the pains of power, we must go to those who have it; to know its pleasures, we must go to those who are seeking it.
-- Charles Caleb Colton		 
Precisely in proportion to our own intellectual weakness will be our credulity as to those mysterious powers assumed by others.
-- Charles Caleb Colton		 
He that is good, will infallibly become better, and he that is bad, will as certainly become worse; for vice, virtue and time are three things that never stand still.
-- Charles Caleb Colton		 
Liberty will not descend to a people, a people must raise themselves to liberty; it is a blessing that must be earned before it can be enjoyed.
-- Charles Caleb Colton		 
The victim to too severe a law is considered as a martyr rather than a criminal.
-- Charles Caleb Colton		 
[W]e are living in a sick Society filled with people who would not directly steal from their neighbors but who are willing to demand that the government do it for them.
-- William Comer		 
America was born of revolt, flourished on dissent, became great through experimentation.
-- Henry Steele Commager		 
Every effort to confine Americanism to a single pattern, to constrain it to a single formula, is disloyalty to everything that is valid in Americanism.
-- Henry Steele Commager		 
Censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates, in the end, the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion... In the long run it will create a generation incapable of appreciating the difference between independence of thought and subservience.
-- Henry Steele Commager		 
Our tradition is one of protest and revolt, and it is stultifying to celebrate the rebels of the past while we silence the rebels of the present.
-- Henry Steele Commager		 
Men in authority will always think that criticism of their policies is dangerous. They will always equate their policies with patriotism, and find criticism subversive.
-- Henry Steele Commager		 
A free society cherishes nonconformity. It knows from the non-conformist, from the eccentric, have come many of the great ideas.
-- Henry Steele Commager		 
Freedom is not a luxury that we can indulge in when at last we have security and prosperity and enlightenment; it is, rather, antecedent to all of these, for without it we can have neither security nor prosperity nor enlightenment.
-- Henry Steele Commager		 
The justification and the purpose of freedom of speech is not to indulge those who want to speak their minds. It is to prevent error and discover truth. There may be other ways of detecting error and discovering truth than that of free discussion, but so far we have not found them.
-- Henry Steele Commager		 
Men in authority will always think that criticism of their policies is dangerous. They will always equate their policies with patriotism, and find criticism subversive.
-- Henry Steele Commager		 
Lawyers are being graduated from our law schools by the thousands who have little knowledge of the Constitution. When  organizations seek a lawyer to instruct them on the Constitution, they find it nearly impossible to secure one competent.
-- Committee on American Citizenship		 
We must create out of the younger generation a generation of Communists. We must turn children, who can be shaped like wax, into real, good Communists.... We must remove the children from the crude influence of their families. We must take them over and, to speak frankly, nationalize them. From the first days of their lives they will be under the healthy influence of Communist children's nurseries and schools. There they will grow up to be real Communists.
-- Communist Party Education Workers Congress		 
Communist Rules for Revolution...
-- Communist Rules for Revolution (Questionable)		 
[When] Men are not allowed to think freely about chemistry and biology, why should they be allowed to think freely about political philosophy?
-- Auguste Comte		 
Social positivism only accepts duties, for all and towards all. Its constant social viewpoint cannot include any notion of rights, for such notion always rests on individuality. We are born under a load of obligations of every kind, to our predecessors, to our successors, to our contemporaries. These obligations then increase or accumulate, for it is some time before we can return any service. ... Any human right is therefore as absurd as immoral. Since there are no divine rights anymore, this concept must therefore disappear completely as related only to the preliminary regime and totally inconsistent with the final state where there are only duties based on functions.
-- Auguste Comte		 
Diversity of opinion within the framework of loyalty to our free society is not only basic to a university but to the entire nation.
-- James Bryant Conant		 
Eight days after taking over the reins of his country, a beloved leader urged everyone to turn in their arms - “There is no longer an enemy,” he said. A slogan, “Arms—What For?” appeared throughout the nation. Thirty days later he ordered his militia to turn in their arms. Promised elections are cancelled, the loved leader becomes a tyrant and his people lose all rights, including freedom of speech and press, becoming a totalitarian state for the next 35 years. For those Americans currently willing to agree to have some of their rights curtailed for temporary security, I’d urge them to look south -- to Cuba.
-- Yvonne M. Conde		 
Nobody should be compelled to respect an ideology that doesn’t respect them.
-- Pat Condell		 
He who will not economize will have to agonize.
-- Confucius		 
If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.
-- Confucius		 
Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles.
-- Confucius		 
The superior man cannot be known in little matters, but he may be entrusted with great concerns. The small man may not be entrusted with great concerns, but he may be known in little matters.
-- Confucius		 
Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Let me do and I understand.
-- Confucius		 
To know what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice.
-- Confucius		 
Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.
-- Confucius		 
The superior man understands what is right. The inferior man understands what is popular.
-- Confucius		 
By nature men are pretty much alike; it is learning and practice that set them apart.
-- Confucius		 
If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what is said is not what is meant, then what must be done remains undone; if this remains undone, morals and art will deteriorate; if justice goes astray, the people will stand about in helpless confusion. Hence there must be no arbitrariness in what is said. This matters above everything.
-- Confucius		 
No mask like open truth to cover lies,\\As to go naked is the best disguise.
-- William Congreve		 
Every citizen has a right to bear arms in defense of himself and the state.
-- Connecticut Constitution		 
You can’t, in sound morals, condemn a man for taking care of his own integrity. It is his clear duty.
-- Joseph Conrad		 
Of all the inanimate objects, of all men’s creations, books are the nearest to us, for they contain our very thoughts, our ambitions, our indignations, our illusions, our fidelity to truth, and our persistent leaning toward error.
-- Joseph Conrad		 
Thus arbitrary power will have divided men of superior intelligence into two groups: the former will be seditious, the latter corrupt...
-- Benjamin Constant		 
No duty, however, binds us to these so-called laws, whose corrupting influence menaces what is noblest in our being...
-- Benjamin Constant		 
First ask yourselves, Gentlemen, what an Englishman, a Frenchman, and a citizen of the United States of America understand today by the word 'liberty'. For each of them it is the right to be subjected only to the laws, and to be neither arrested, detained, put to death nor maltreated in any way by the arbitrary will of one or more individuals. It is the right of everyone to express their opinion, choose a profession and practice it, to dispose of property, and even to abuse it; to come and go without permission, and without having to account for their motives or undertakings. It is everyone's right to associate with other individuals, either to discuss their interests, or to profess the religion which they or their associates prefer, or even simply to occupy their days or hours in a way which is more compatible with their inclinations or whims. Finally, it is everyone's right to exercise some influence on the administration of the government, either by electing all or particular officials, or through representations, petitions, demands to which the authorities are more or less compelled to pay heed. Now compare this liberty with that of the ancients. The latter consisted in exercising collectively, but directly, several parts of the complete sovereignty; in deliberating, in the public square, over war and peace; in forming alliances with foreign governments; in voting laws, in pronouncing judgments; in examining the accounts, the acts, the stewardship of the magistrates; in calling them to appear in front of the assembled people, in accusing, condemning or absolving them. But if this was what the ancients called liberty, they admitted as compatible with this collective freedom the complete subjection of the individual to the authority of the community.
-- Benjamin Constant		 
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government.
-- Constitution for the United States		 
We the People of the united States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
-- Constitution for the USA		 
In all criminal cases whatsoever, the jury shall have the right to determine the law and the facts.
-- Indiana Constitution		 
Every citizen has a right to keep and bear arms; and this right shall never be questioned.
-- Maine Constitution		 


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